Opinion

Casting is time consuming! It can suck up all your energy. It can leave you exhausted and frustrated. It is mostly the one part of photography that always demands tons of effort, and does not always reward us with the results we hope for. That’s why there are casting directors, both in the stills and film industry. It is a job! When you are working on your portfolio you rarely have the means to hire one, so better to get efficient with it on your own. If you are a landscape or a still life photographer, move along gleefully.

For the last several weeks, the Fstoppers team has been working with Joey Wright in Curaçao filming a new original tutorial on swimwear photography. While we were filming, we used some of our time with Joey to offer feedback to a variety of images submitted by the Fstoppers community. We chose 20 images to critique. Check out our selections below and add your thoughts and ratings to the comments below.

The ability to direct models (any model) in your shoot is key to any visual project. You might have the best location, styling, and lighting setup, but if you don’t have the right kind of emotion in your model's face, it will all have been for nothing. Your mission is not just to press on the shutter release, but to also be a director. Here are the dos and don'ts and a little bonus at the end.

Faster, higher, stronger is the code by which I have made most of my lens and camera decisions for nearly a decade. I've never been satisfied with f/2.8. I've waged war between the focal planes of the eye and the eyelash, and I have the scars and image casualties to prove it. As I grow older and my battle-weary eyes begin to look back at my quest, I have begun to see the emptiness in it all. Were even my perfect shots completely out of focus?

We all know it's a little bit more competitive for females to "make it" in the photography and film industries. Yes, it is. The gender gap is real, and I'm not being a feminazi. There are studies about this — science. Even women who are the main characters in films don't get paid as much as their male counterparts (Jennifer Lawrence in the Hunger Games, anyone?). It's even worse for women who are behind the screen, the creators of these big projects. The team over at Vimeo isn't having it anymore, so they are doing something about it.

People continue to ask me the same question over and over, "How do I quickly grow my following on Instagram?" I will continue to tell them there is no easy way to go about this, but I have found one way in recent months that has been building my following much faster than I expected. Here are a few ways I am finding great follower growth, as well as a rise in engagement. Trust me, hold tight while I go through a few ways you as a professional can get ahead of some of these young guns with iPhones.

After a photo shoot, most photographers cull through their images on their favorite software. During this process, images that stand out are kept for post-processing, and rejects are thrown away. But what exactly constitutes an image worthy of making the cut?

Working as a behind-the-scenes or “stills” photographer is an entirely different experience to most usual photography jobs. As photographers we naturally tend to take charge of the creative direction, and are used to getting our own way. Working BTS requires you to work within different dynamics, not least of which involves being surrounded by other creatives, each with their own opinions and ideas. Here are some of the best and worst things you can expect whilst shooting behind-the-scenes.

Just in time for 2016, the FAA released a registration system and will require anyone currently operating unmanned aerial systems (UAS), otherwise known as "drones," to register by February 19 of this year. Although the FAA's legal authority over this issue is questionable and although this applies to anyone flying drones only within certain weight guidelines for hobby or recreational use outdoors, there are a number of reasons you should register in the next 10 days, even if these particular circumstances do not apply to you.

Just five years ago I started down the path of photography and it's been some of the best professional and personal years of my life thus far. It has opened up my creativity to a whole new way of thinking which has added great value in the day job of design and advertising. Sparking my interest in this field was Instagram. Like many others in 2011, it was the iPhone that challenged me and helped me hone my skills over the years but I always wanted to get my hands on a full frame after talking with so many professionals. This year I finally did it. Here is how I feel professionals and even those starting out can maximize using both a DSLR and iPhone in a professional setting.

Vogue Magazine recently released a list of 10 things the modern wedding can do without. Along with rings and the first dance, Vogue wants you to say "I don't" to hiring a professional photographer because a wedding is about "true love" and a photographer "detracts from that." Excuse me?

The new year has arrived! Time to stop making excuses as to why you can't make better images. The only barrier to creating the work you really want to create is you. Cast aside your goofy excuses that you use to justify your failings. Do what it takes to become the photographer you want to be and do it now!

I’m not going to lie, sometimes I feel like photographers try too hard. Don’t get me wrong, we all need to try to improve ourselves, and that I completely agree with. It’s a new year, and with that comes new challenges and new opportunities for us to better ourselves as creatives. Challenges aren’t supposed to be easy, and are certainly supposed to push you to step outside your comfy little box.

One key to longevity in filmmaking or photography is to have regular clients that you enjoy working with. What’s even better is when you have enough work coming in from those top clients, so that you can actually pick and choose the projects you take on, and even go as far as to expand your business or pass work off to qualified associates for a modest finders fee. It takes a long time to get there, but being savvy about building a client base can help tremendously.

The new year is upon us. In 2016, many of us will take on resolutions related to our photography. There’s probably not a more common resolution than the 365 project, where a photographer commits to publicly post one photo every day. Projects range in scope, theme, and popularity, but one thing is for sure: Most of us never complete it.

For years I have had the internal and professional battle to go through the motion of building a portfolio website to show off my absolute best and most recent work while also being able to allow clients to easily contact me. In today's day and age there has never been an easier way to do all of these things all in one place, for me that's Instagram and it should be for you as well. Here is why I think it's the best portfolio website on the web.

For the past few weeks, the entire Fstoppers team has been debating about the best photography gear of 2015. We even reached out to the Fstoppers community for your opinions as well. After hours and hours of debate, our list is finally complete.

In the next few weeks, Fstoppers is going to be working on an awesome new project with the incredible swimwear photographer, Joey Wright. While we're working with Wright, we thought we'd give everyone a chance to have their swimwear images critiqued by one of the best in the business. Between now and January 5, enter your swimwear images by following the submission guidelines below. We will be choosing 20 images to give feedback to.

Along with the new year comes an opportunity for a fresh start, the time of year when seemingly everyone looks at their life and what they can change. While it is certainly cliché to come up with goals for the new year, it is a great time to refocus your energy. By focusing on certain aspects of your photography, I believe that you can not only become a better photographer, but find better, bigger clients, grow your business, and follow your dreams. Check out the following simple facets of photography and how you can look at them differently, gain inspiration, and get after it in the new year.

The authenticity of those #wild #liveauthentic social media photos of the outdoor adventure types is questionable at best. But some people really do walk around in the forest with bright colored puffy jackets for more than just snazzy photos and all the likes. Unfortunately, the "take only photos, leave only footprints" model of Leave No Trace principles still leaves many remote and protected areas of the wilderness trampled and exploited by outdoor enthusiasts.

I have been following and reporting on Vincent Laforet's "AIR" series since its first round was released. I came across an early printing of the book itself in the waiting area of San Francisco's Storehouse startup while I was about to take on another interview. I knew Storehouse and Laforet had a good working relationship, and I knew the images so well. But I didn't have time to look inside -- not that I felt I had to, however, since I knew the work inside and out. So when Laforet offered me a copy of the book to review, I simply had to say, "Of course," even if it was with mixed feelings. What could I, objectively speaking, really get out of it? Hadn't I seen it all?

I have a confession: I don't like a lot of photographers. I see unfounded vitriol and unearned authority slung carelessly and without reason. It makes me weary, and in a field in which it's hard enough to succeed without unnecessary negativity, I simply don't have time for it.

An annual award that TIME magazine started three years ago has chosen it's official 2015 winner. Stacy Kranitz is an Instagram photographer who is most famous for her work in the Appalachia area. The poverty stricken, drug and alcohol filled area is certainly an eye opening subject. But why her in particular?

Adobe’s last quarter results are out, and they’re better than ever. Adobe’s Creative Cloud and media business rose 35 percent thanks to a 23 percent beat on subscriber expectations, while the company’s overall net income more than doubled from $88.1 million to a staggering $222 million. Adobe’s fourth-quarter earnings report shot its stock to all-time highs. On one hand, that’s good business. But what does this mean for creatives who have felt an increasingly rocky relationship with the software giant?

The Verge reported Tuesday that British hydrogen fuel cell technology company Intelligent Energy has been successfully testing a miniaturized version of a hydrogen fuel cell as part of a drone system with the intent to increase flight times. Through such hydrogen fuel cell technology, drones could start flying for up to and over two hours, which would be a six-fold increase over the current industry-standard 20-minute flight time for many drones.

Being involved in any creative industry usually guarantees one thing: we’re never happy with the work we produce. At least not for long. We’re constantly striving to better ourselves and the work we’re putting out. And in the age of the internet, we’re consuming more images from other photographers than ever, meaning that it’s all too easy to compare our work to that of our peers. For years I questioned my own shooting style, but here’s why I believe you should learn to love your photographic approach just the way it is.

If you consider yourself an artist, with the sole intent of getting hired to create beautiful imagery and hope that people are going to come knocking at your door to buy your images, congrats! You’ve failed as a photographer in 2015.

Have you been trying to think of creative ways to use your skills with a camera for the good of your community? Well look no further! In Jacksonville, FL a vigilante photography group calling themselves, "Photography Is Not a Crime" is doing just that.

Anyone with a MagSafe 2 Apple laptop might think it looks a bit prettier than the previous version, but how many times does that charger inadvertently get knocked out of place? There is a solution, or didn’t you know?

Fstoppers is adding a little something extra to this week's episode of "Critique the Community." We are inviting everyone to submit your lifestyle photography images for review. This means your images shouldn't just be portraits of people, they need to be images of people in action or living some sort of life. Like we've done in the past, we will be choosing 20 images give our thoughts and feedback to. In addition to our normal critique, we will also be giving away two camera bags to two individuals who will be randomly chosen from the critiqued image pool. Submissions must be made by Sunday, December 13th.